Spirited Away 2 - The Second Adventure
by Zryuu
Summary: After returning from the spirit world, Chihiro lost all of her memories and never managed to retrieve them no matter how hard she tried. Now, an 18-year-old Chihiro had found her way back to the spirit world, only to discover that the bathhouse had been destroyed. To uncover the truth, she must traverse the unfamiliar lands of the spirit world, and try to recall her lost memories.
1. Prologue

It had been eight years since Chihiro moved to the countryside and today was her high school graduation ceremony. It had also been eight years since she felt as if an important chunk of her memory had disappeared which she had never been able to recall even till this day.

As Chihiro held her high school diploma in her hands, she decided to forget about retrieving the lost memories - that she wasn't even sure existed - and move on.

"Chihiro! I'm going to miss you so much after we graduate! Why do you have to move to the city? You should just stay! The countryside's good! We have...we have trees, rivers and me!" Cali cried and clung onto Chihiro. Chihiro chuckled softly and petted her petite friend's head.

"Cali, we can still keep in touch. We have a strong friendship, don't we?" Chihiro tried to assure her, but Cali continued reciting her list of 'the evils of the city'.

"Ogino-san!" a familiar voice called out and Chihiro turned around.

"Ah, Takahiro-kun, what's the matter?" Chihiro asked. Takahiro-kun looked a little flustered when she did and immediately looked away, then he mumbled a bit under his breath but it was too soft for Chihiro to catch what he said.

"Huh? Sorry, Takahiro-kun, but I can't really hear you-"

"E...Email! Um, please. Uh, give me your email address! I mean please give me your email address!" he fumbled.

"Oh, ok. Hold on for a moment." Chihiro wrote her address on the piece of paper he handed her and passed it back.

"Um...thank you! See you!" he quickly uttered and ran away to his usual group of friends who surrounded him immediately.

"Looks like he finally did it huh, took him long enough." Cali commented with a bored look on her face. "So what are you doing after this Chihiro? Wanna stop by somewhere to celebrate the demise of our youth?"

Chihiro laughed at Cali's melodrama.

"Sorry, but I'll be heading to my usual spot after this so I won't be able to join you today. How about tomorrow?"

"Ok! But Chihiro...you know they'll be covering up that old tunnel soon, right?"

"I know. I just need to try once more before I give up. For real this time."

But, deep down, Chihiro knew that no matter how hard she tried, she would never stop trying to recall her lost memories. Even though for the past eight years she had not been able to recall anything, and more often than not she wanted to give up on searching for such ambiguous memories, she couldn't stop trying,

And yet, the only key to her memories - the tunnel to an abandoned amusement park - was about to be destroyed. Slowly, but surely, Chihiro was losing hope.

**Author's note: Hello! Thank you for reading this story, and I would appreciate any reviews as I would like to improve on my writing, especially since this would be my first fan fiction tryout. I would probably try to edit my writing after every few chapters to correct grammar mistakes or sentence structures and such too (:**


	2. The Unexpected Return to a New World

"I'm back." Chihiro announced as she stared into the dark, empty tunnel.

After a few minutes, there was still no reply and Chihiro let out a resigned sigh. She sat by the scary-faced statue and stared at the sky motionlessly.

"_I must be crazy._" Chihiro thought, "_What am I waiting for?_" She stood up and faced the tunnel.

"What am I waiting for!" she shouted in exasperation, "Is anyone there? What did I forget? Please, isn't there someone there? Anyone!"

By the time she was done shouting, Chihiro was panting with exertion. But still, there was no reply.

"_Forget it_." Chihiro sighed. She was tired. She was tired of expecting, tired of waiting and tired of being disappointed again and again. It was a lot to bear. Chihiro grabbed her schoolbag and walked over to her bike to ride it home.

As she approached her bike, she noticed something small move from the corner of her eye. She bent down and squinted her eyes at the little black dot near her bicycle tire that was..._jumping_? Chihiro rubbed her eyes. She stared harder at the black dot that seemed like it had a life of its own to try and discern what it was. The fuzzy appearance looked strangely familiar...then it hit her.

The black dot looked like a soot ball. And if she stared hard enough, she would be able to make out the pair of eyes on the little ball that began to squeak loudly.

"Gah!" Chihiro uttered in surprise and fell back. The soot ball was jumping around crazily _and_ squeaking, which made it seem strangely...alive? But that would be impossible! Wouldn't it?

The lively soot ball continued its incessant squeaking and suddenly started to jump towards the tunnel to the abandoned amusement park.

"Wait!" Chihiro called out, and before she knew what she was doing, began to give chase to the little soot ball. Chihiro knew that she was probably crazy, and desperate, but at that moment nothing mattered. As she ran after the soot ball, Chihiro felt alive and ridiculously excited. "_I'm going back,_" she thought. But back where, she didn't know, nor did she care.

As Chihiro ran through the tunnel, she felt a surge of nostalgia. Yes, she had entered this tunnel before during her frequent trips to the abandoned amusement park in the past eight years, but it never felt like this. This time was different, and as she approached the end of the tunnel, the excitement in her had risen tremendously.

When she exited the tunnel, Chihiro noticed that there was something different about the place. The abandoned amusement park was the same, as well as the grass fields, but across the dried up riverbank Chihiro could see old, red buildings with beautiful ornaments as decorations.

It was a _town_. In all of her past trips, Chihiro had never seen the town before.

The soot ball appeared to have been waiting for her at the end of the tunnel and squeaked impatiently before scurrying off towards the new town.

"Ah, wait for me!" Chihiro cried before taking off after the little black ball again. As she was running through the river, a water stream suddenly gushed down from upstream and Chihiro dashed as quickly as she could towards the other side of the riverbank. By the time she reached, the whole river had filled up and the water level was too deep for Chihiro to think about returning home. Yet, she looked away from the river without hesitation and continued to give chase to the soot ball.

The lights the lined the food stands along the streets began to lit up one by one and strangely shaped, translucent spirits began to appear. Many of them waddled around the stands slowly, and some of them even adorned old-fashioned bamboo straw hats. None of these surprised Chihiro. This place was familiar to her. The key to her lost memories must lie within this world, and the soot ball would to lead her to it.

Chihiro ran past the food stands, refusing all invitations by the stand owners to try their food, through a few more empty streets and arrived at a bridge, but the sight of what was beyond it made her stop in her tracks.

The building right across the bridge was a complete wreck. The top of the pagoda building had fallen to the ground and its windows were completely shattered. Green moss threatened to cover the entire building, and debris was littered everywhere. There was absolutely no signs of anyone still living in the building. The dark, foreboding building was in stark contrast to the brightly lit town that surrounded it.

Chihiro stood paralysed as her eyes couldn't leave the wreckage. Flickers of memories of a bustling bathhouse ran through her mind. Upbeat workers were always rushing about, attending to the never-ending stream of customers. Orders would be shouted out and the bathhouse was always noisy with the chattering of the customers and employees alike. The bathhouse had always stood as the brightest building of all in the streets.

What in the world happened?

**Author's note: Was supposed to extend this chapter, but I wrote both the prologue at this chapter in one breath so my mental capacity is waning, especially since it's 4am right now (the time when brain juices just do not flow ;-;) **


	3. Kamaji, the Boiler Man

An impatient soot ball that jumped up and down in front of Chihiro snapped her out of her thoughts. When the soot ball was sure that it had her attention once again, it began to continue its journey towards its original destination, and Chihiro resumed running after the little ball.

After making a few turns and jumping down streets of empty houses, the soot ball finally entered one of them with Chihiro following immediately behind. The house was mostly empty aside from being lined with tatami mats and had only one opening other than the front entrance which exposed a flight of spiraling stone stairs that appeared to lead somewhere underground. It was a narrow space that would have barely fit Chihiro and its only source of light were the wall torches that casted dancing shadows on the walls with its flickering fires. Chihiro hesitated for a mere moment before she decided to follow the soot ball that had just jumped down the stairs.

As she made her way down, Chihiro had both her hands on the walls and was walking down the stairs one step at a time. There was so little light that Chihiro could only see the step that was immediately in front of her, so her only option was to proceed cautiously. Luckily, the stairwell was not as deep as she had imagined, and after passing about a dozen torches she could see another source of light that was most probably the exit. Chihiro quickly picked up her pace as she wanted to get out of the stairwell as soon as possible, but she realised it was a mistake when she took a misstep and tumbled down the rest of the stairs. This misstep gave her a weird sense of deja vu as she remembered something about accidentally running down a flight of metal stairs and running straight into a wall, though she couldn't quite remember where she had done so...

Chihiro tumbled into a warmly lit room, and as she sat up began rubbing her back to soothe the raging pain that surged through it. A throng of black soot balls suddenly surrounded her and all of them began squeaking excitedly, and Chihiro was confused by their excitement at her appearance.

Chihiro looked around the room to examine her surroundings. It looked like a medicinal shop, with a long, wooden stand that stretched from end to another with small bottles of medicinal wine atop it. At one side of the room there were rows after rows of individual drawers with labels on them, whereas the other side comprised of shelves that were fully stacked with old, worn out books. The small, square room was only about ten metres wide at most. However, Chihiro was only focused on the lone figure in the room aside from the soot balls. It was an old, bald man with multiple limbs that had been busy reading a book while mixing herbs in a ceramic pot on the wooden table and writing down notes in a thin, leather notebook - all at the same time. His back faced Chihiro, so she couldn't see his face, but he had heard the commotion she made and knew that someone had entered his shop.

"Oh, a customer so soon after we opened? What can I do for you-" the old man had turned around and stopped speaking when he looked up from the book he had been reading. He was wearing huge shades that covered his eyes and had a bushy moustache that immediately caught Chihiro's attention.

"A human...? It can't be. Child, what's your name?" the moustache spider-man asked.

"Chihiro. My name is Chihiro, sir." Chihiro replied quickly.

"Chihiro! You're back! You've really grown, I almost couldn't recognise you with long hair. But how did you-" the old man looked at the soot balls that had surrounded Chihiro before he continued speaking, "Don't tell me it was one of you!" his tone had changed to one of anger and it scared the bunch of soot balls into scurrying about in random directions to hide in the cracks of the surrounding walls.

Now Chihiro was even more confused. The old man spoke as if he knew her, yet she could not remember who he was at all. More than that, she was shocked at her lack of surprise at the sight of a human with eight limbs. Had she lost all common sense?

"This is bad," the old man began to mutter, "I don't know how I'm going to get you back this time Chihiro-"

"I can't go back." Chihiro announced, then immediately covered her mouth. She did not understand why she had uttered those words, though it was true that the thought of returning home had never crossed her mind. Then, the sight of the wrecked bathhouse ran through her mind.

"I need to know what happened to the bathhouse."

The old man scratched his head and looked like he was at a loss.

"Well, Chihiro, I don't quite know where to start. After all, it had been quite some time since the bathhouse was ruined...though I'm not sure how much time that would be for you, since the time runs through both our worlds differently."

"Um, I'm sorry for bringing this up so late, but I don't actually know who you are..." Chihiro admitted, "I think I know you though! Or at least, I feel like I know you, but I just can't remember anything about you, or anything about this place, actually."

The old man paused thoughtfully.

"I see. That would make sense." he muttered, then the old man proceeded to search for something under the wooden stand. He eventually emerged with a mysterious brown slab in one of his hands and extended it to her.

"Before we continue, eat this. You're already starting to disappear."

Disappear? Chihiro automatically lifted her hands and gasped. They had turned translucent! She quickly surveyed the rest of the body, and realised that her whole body was beginning to fade as well.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine as long as you eat something from our world. Go on." the old man urged.

Chihiro gulped, then she accepted the unappealing brown piece of 'food' and hurriedly swallowed it so that she wouldn't have to bear its taste. She looked at her hands again, and was relieved to see that they were slowly becoming clear again.

"Thank you, sir."

"No problem. Now then, about your memories." the old man continued and shifted his shades up, "I don't think that they have been erased, but are rather 'hidden' within you. You will probably regain them in time, but I don't know how long that will take. So for now, I'll re-introduce myself. I'm Kamaji, and I worked in the boiler room of the bathhouse you mentioned just now."

"It's very nice to meet you sir, I'm Chihiro Ogino."

"You used to be known as Sen around these parts, you know. So don't be shocked if some people call you by that name."

"Huh? Why would I be known as Sen?"

"Hmm, that would take a long time to explain. In a nutshell, the last time you came to the spirit world, you worked in the bathhouse as well, and the owner of the bathhouse was a witch called Yubaba who controlled her workers by taking away their names. That's what she did to you, so your name 'Chihiro' was taken away and she gave you a new name. 'Sen'."

By this point, Chihiro was pretty overwhelmed by all the new information about her old self that she never knew she had. Why had she been in the spirit world before? Why did she end up working in the bathhouse? And how did she return afterwards? She decided to put away those useless thoughts. She would understand everything once she regains her memories, and that would be her priority for now.

"Mr. Kamaji, what happened to the bathhouse after I left?"

Kamaji scratched his head before he replied. "Well, Chihiro, I'm not quite sure myself. After you left, the bathhouse was operating as per normal. Then, after some time, a group of thug spirits suddenly showed up and claimed ownership of the bathhouse. And Yubaba even handed the bathhouse to them obediently and asked all of us workers to comply to the wishes of our new owners. Subsequently, they chased all of us out of the bathhouse and closed the bathhouse. Without anyone taking care of it, the bathhouse eventually fell to ruins, which is usually what happens to any abandoned buildings in our world. As for us, the bathhouse workers, we split up to search for ways to fend for ourselves after losing our jobs and I ended up in this medicinal shop since I've always had my ways with the herbs, but I doubt the others were as fortunate."

After listening to Kamaji's story, Chihiro took a few minutes to digest all the information she had gathered._ Since the owner of the bathhouse, this Yubaba person- I mean, spirit, handed the bathhouse over to the new owners without a fight, it must mean that she had already known that they were coming and was prepared to hand the bathhouse over? So she must have had a reason for that...maybe she was threatened? Or she had a deal with them? But why did the new owners just left the bathhouse to waste away? Wouldn't they lose a profitable business by losing the bathhouse? Unless they took over the bathhouse for another reason..._

Chihiro realised that she had a lot of questions, and that she needed answers. Kamaji doesn't seem like he knew enough to answer her questions, so she just needed to find someone who could. But who? Yubaba? Yes, she would look for Yubaba.

"Mr. Kamaji, do you know where Yubaba is right now?"

"Sorry, dear, but I don't. After she handed the bathhouse over to the new owners, she just disappeared with her son and pet bird. Even Haku doesn't know where she disappeared to."

"Who's Haku?"

Kamaji paused again.

"Yubaba's apprentice."

"Well, is there anyone else who might know where Yubaba is?"

"Not anyone from the bathhouse, no. However, there might be one spirit who would help you. But, Chihiro, what are you going to do after you find Yubaba?"

That was a good question. Chihiro herself wasn't quite sure why she was so concerned about the bathhouse, other than it being the only clue she had to regaining her memories. Her memories...that's right. She had wanted to regain her memories.

"Mr. Kamaji, I'm going to find Yubaba and restore the bathhouse. That way, I might be able to recall my lost memories. I'm not sure if restoring the bathhouse might be of any help, but it's the only way I can think of right now!"

Kamaji nodded. "Ok, I understand. Come here, you soot ball!" he commanded and one of the soot balls immediately emerged from a crack in the wall and jumped up to the wooden stand. Kamaji rummaged through one of the medicinal drawers and grabbed a handful of powder, then he sprinkled it onto the soot ball while mumbling incessantly under his breath. After he finished sprinkling the powder, he completed his ritual by bringing two of his hands together for one resounding clap in front of the soot ball and Chihiro felt a strong wave that passed by her momentarily.

"Take this little guy with you, he'll lead you to someone who'll be able to help you find the spirit who might be able to find Yubaba, but I can't guarantee anything."

The magically enchanted soot ball jumped off the wooden stand and rested on Chihiro's shoulder as Kamaji spoke. It didn't seem any different to Chihiro, but then again, she wasn't quite sure how magic actually worked in the spirit world.

"Thank you, Mr. Kamaji. I'm really grateful for everything!" Chihiro thanked, then stood up and proceeded to leave.

"Hold on, child." Kamaji stopped Chihiro, then he began taking random items from the drawers, shelves and under the wooden stand before packing them all in a small cloth and tying it up securely with a knot with a sling that would make it easy to carry.

"Here, some provisions for your journey. Now, remember Chihiro, most spirits aren't too fond of humans so I want you to be careful. That soot ball should be able to protect you from the weaker spirits, but it won't be able to protect you from the stronger ones. So if you meet any dangerous spirits, I want you to run. Also, it would probably be safer for you to meet up with Haku. He's strong enough to protect you from any of the stronger spirits that may stand in your way, plus he's also looking for ways to restore the bathhouse. I'm not too sure how to find him though, since he's always travelling here and there. Remember, Haku is a river spirit who can take the form of a dragon and a human. I don't know how he looks like as a human, since his form has probably changed after so long, but I can tell you that he will probably look like a boy."

Chihiro nodded and thanked Kamaji again for the wealth of information he had provided her, then left his abode.

"Poor Haku. I wish those two kids all the best." Kamaji sighed.


End file.
